gazmosis

That stinks doesn't it?

Followed up on 2-6-2014

Jose! IT is always a pleasure to see such attention to detail! Your armor is a pleasure to look at! Outstanding work! CRL Requirements: All photo and CRL requirements have been met. Other-Armor Fit and Assembly: There isn't too much to suggest here!!! Well done! As was stated, this was an easy pass!!! Congratulations on joining the ranks, trooper!!!! Centurion Suggestions: It appears to me that you might be thinking about applying for Centurion. I think you should. In addition to making sure all your Centurion points are covered in photos, I would look into reducing the appearance of your shim seam between your Kidney and shim. It looks like you have a reinforcement plate behind the shim (which is great!) It shouldn't be difficult to fill, sand and polish that seam with ABS paste. I think you can come darn close to making it disappear with your talents. Congratulations, Jose!!!

We appreciate your willingness to work with this. We are all here to help make us look our best!

Hello Raymond. Thank you for your Centurion application! RS armor will always be up there with my favorite armors. I hate you for being able to fit in it. ANYWAY......... let's get to your armor! I appreciate the adjustments you have made with your ab buttons and holster straps. They look great!!! I will touch on your sides a little further down. CRL and Centurion Photo Requirements: Caen had already beat me to it when mentioning about some missing photos. It is easier to have the photo checklist in your photographer's hand and take/submit your Centurion armor photos from the list. That way nothing is missed. Anyway, I am going to need the following pictures posted: "S" trim verification on the neck opening of your helmet, Close-ups of both the front and rear of your shoulder bridges, Close-up of your sniper knee plate, close-up of your thigh pack attachment, and a closer shot of your boots. They should be slightly scuffed up. They look REALLY clean in these shots. I was able to reference your blaster and belt pics from your EIB application. Other-Armor Fit/Assembly I want to thank you again for doing the adjustments we discussed earlier. There is one thing, however, that I would like you to adjust or verify for me. The split rivets on your left side should be mounted in the neighborhood of 10 MM in from the seam of your Ab and Kidney. The pics from your EIB application show this to be way outside that 10 MM. I agree that you have trimmed it down a bit but according to your ruler, you are still hovering closer to the 20 MM range than the 10. I have looked at your armor fit and would consider letting this go if the armor was squeezing you but it seems like you have the room to make this adjustment. Look that over and see if you can bring those rivets evenly closer to the seam by trimming a little more. Have someone squeeze the kidney and ab closure without the belt. If there is still overlap at your sides, you have the room. These are minor changes that will bring your armor to the next level.

The originals were not done with a zigzag stitch. There is no law about which stitch to use. The biggest concern is the fraying of the material on the edges and getting your layers of material to stay put during the sewing process. I have had great success with something called Interfacing. It is a very light fabric with a mild adhesive on it. It comes in two kinds: one sided and two sided. I use the two sided. The two sided has adhesive on both sides. It comes in a roll that you can buy cut to whatever length you want. You iron this to your fabric and it will stiffen the fabric up slightly. Since it is two sided, there is adhesive on the backside as well. Once you iron the interfacing to the fabric, you peel the back away exposing the the adhesive. You can now iron two pieces of fabric together allowing things to stay in place when sewing. This is very helpful when sewing 5-6 layers of material together. It also comes in handy because it is difficult to cut fabric into long, belt size strips and keep them square and true. Interfacing helps by stiffening up the fabric slightly making cutting easier. Although the interfacing will help to keep things in place, it is not a cure all for the fraying edges. I make a solution of diluted elmers all purpose glue. There is also white fabric glue. I dilute this in water and brush it on the edges sealing them. this helps keep the fraying to a minimum while keeping the original look of the belt.

Typically, you won't use bubble lenses for a stunt helmet. The most common lenses are cut from welder safety shield available at any safety supply/PPE store

So here in lies the question: is the hasty and often sloppy assembly of the original armor the way troopers want their armor? In some cases, yes. Do some think the Empire (if real) would have it assembled that way? No. And they can assemble their armor to match a "cleaner" look. As long as all the correct parts are there, I like to see both ways.

Hey there, James! You don;t see too many MTK builds. You did this one well. There are some photos and details that need to be addressed before I can pass you for EIB. CRL and Other Requirements: A couple of required photos are missing. I need a shot of both sides of your helmet. I need to be certain of all detail aspects of your helmet which leads me to the other photo I need and that is the back of your helmet. Next, I need pics of both sides of your blaster. I need to confirm that your scope is the correct style as well. Nice work on that lower row of vent holes in front of the mag housing!!! Th last required shot is of the fasteners you used to connect your holster. The only issue that I see that needs to be corrected to pass for EIB is the rivets on your sniper plate. This is something that is allowed for basic approval, but to venture into EIB status, this needs to be removed. You can always mix up some ABS paste with scrap ABS shavings and acetone to seal up the rivet holes, then you can glue and clamp it to your shin. Make sure it is lined up with the ridge line at the top of your shin. Other-Armor Fit, Assembly Several other troopers have mentioned about the roominess of your left bicep and right forearm. Adjusting these two parts and making them a bit smaller will go a long way in the over all balanced look of your armor as well as the comfort in wearing it. Last bit. I would recommend contacting Mike and asking him to verify that you have the kidney attached correctly. The Kidney should not have an upward direction towards the ab plate. it should be mostly level around your back. I saw that you marked "up" with an arrow on it, but I would contact him to make sure. This is some awesome looking armor. You have done a very nice job and are really close. Please make these changes and hopefully you will shoot for Centurion!!!! We look forward to your update!

It is awesome that you showed just how many times you chipped away at both sides of the ears until you got the fit you wanted. Sometimes people just don't realize that it takes a lot. Great thread!

Your cheek stripes can be adjusted with only the bottom two on each side. They can be carefully pried off and replaced. I know. I had to do the same thing a while back.

have you tried painting a line with them? I am curious how they work!

Wow, Luis!!! What a great looking set of armor and a top notch build. This armor fits you so well! Nice build, trooper!!! Now, onto your EIB apllication! EIB/CRL Requirements: All CRL and EIB photo and armor requirements have been met. All passes should be this easy! Other-Armor Fit and Assembly Although neither of these points will effect your EIB or Centurion application(should you decide to go for Centurion) It is worth bringing up for consistency sake. It was mentioned in another trooper's EIB application about the rank bar on the ear bumps painted the same on both sides. If the Stormtrooper world was real, the rank bars would be there as a visual indication of that trooper's rank. I would have them the same on both sides. Archive photos show the same helmet with different bumps painted but for consistency sake, I would have them the same. The next point I wanted to make was your cheek stripes. Believe it or not, you have them on the wrong side. The main indicator of this is in the lowermost tube stripe toward the front of the helmet. In the overall pattern, there is a slight twist in the pattern as the stripes get closer to the mouth. On the Dave M. helmet decals this slight twist in the pattern, the lower stripes should twist away from the mouth. You have it twisting towards the mouth. You can change it by just lifting and re positioning the lower stripes if you want. I like that you painted your blaster a gun metal dark gray and not just standard black. If you hit your handle with gloss black like the original Sterlings were it will make your blaster REALLY pop!! Thank you for making the ab buttons a tad smaller. I wouldn't argue with you if you decided to take them down just a smidge more. Nice job with that sniper plate as well!! Centurion Suggestions: From the efforts you have taken your build, I can only assume you will be applying for Centurion. Aside form providing the required photos that show Centurion points, I noticed a couple things on your armor to make sure is up to date. Make sure you get hold of rubber hand guards, and the drop boxes on the waist belt need to have full inner boxes. It looks like you have carefully trimmed covers, but not full boxes. Congratulations on some fantastic looking armor! Welcome to the ranks, Luis!!!

I do agree with Paul that it would not hinder a Centurion application to have your sniper plate left as you have it. However, I would take the photo example as AN example not THE example. I do not agree that ALL the costumes were built in this manner. This is a topic I am willing to discuss and be proven wrong if necessary but I have viewed almost every screen grab I have been able to view and aside from Paul's photo reference and the new EFX suit, I cannot find another pic of the sniper plate going beyond the upper shin ridge corner with any consistency to say that without a doubt ALL the suits were built like that. If you view every trooper frame by frame from the film, you will find things (weird holsters mounted upside down, open shin backs, gaffers tape, no tube stripes, etc...) These were examples of rushed costume assembly and lack of attention to detail. Something I don't believe the Empire would really do. Long and short, we are just looking for consistency across the board.

That just sounds like much more work than just stitching it right to th glove

Incredible!

ATA cannot be converted to properly do a RotJ suit because the butt plate and kidney need to be one piece. Unless you have MAD skills. Go with the CFO if your heart is set on RotJ

With all the friends you have over there, it should be no problem for you to get hold of the proper rivets to do your thigh pack. It will be just as much work, if not less, to just replace the rivet than to fill, sand, and paint the one you have.

just test it to make sure it's hardened all the way

HI Marc. I will say that I will be eternally jealous of you fit guys that can get into Troopermaster's wonderful armor! You look great! I love your mods done to your Doopys blaster. Very nice! CRL Related: All EIB required photos are present and all CRL requirements have been met. This was an easy pass!!! Other - Armor Fit and Assembly: I have nothing to add that would affect your EIB application, Centurion Suggestions: Aside from making sure you have all photo requirements covered, I wanted to go over a couple points to look for prior to applying for Centurion (which I assume you will) I would like to address a comment made earlier concerning the rank bars on your ear bumps. Rank bars on the ears really only come into play for Centurion applications. In the Stormtrooper world, if it were real, the rank bars would be applied to indicate rank for a specific trooper by sight alone. There should be the same bar painted on both sides. The sniper plate in your left knee will need some adjustments. You left a lot of meat on it that needs to be trimmer down. I have seen troopers leave a curve in the upper area to avoid splitting but you can take that down some and still achieve the same thing. The sides of the sniper plate should not exceed the corner edge of the upper ridge on the side of the grieve itself. Hopefully my illustration will make it clear.Lastly, is the rivet that you used to attach the pack to the bottom of your right thigh. These should be cap or speed rivets and not standard pop rivets. The head needs to be a solid head Like this. Congratulations on your EIB Marc, and welcome to the ranks!!!!

You, Sir...are a stallion!

Ca glue is just that.....instantly permanent and has little to no forgiveness. In my experience, clean all surfaces with alcohol, mark where you want and where you don't want glue, rehearse your proceedure, then glue. I would use CA to glue up your inside connecting strips if you use them, then glue your cover strips with e6000

That is very acceptable. The ears don't have to fit perfect and some actually strive for the level you are at. Now I would make your teeth a little less "twinkie" shaped and a little more squared off.

Title edited! I. Was just gonna ask.. Wink